This invention relates to a support device for supporting elongate members during embedding of the members in a poured layer.
During the pouring of concrete and other solid layers is often necessary to bury within the concrete elongate structural members which reinforce the concrete. In many cases the elongate structural elements comprise rebar which is simple steel rod but in other cases the elongate members can comprise pipe for example in the laying of cooling pipes for an ice rink.
The conventional technique for supporting rebar in a concrete layer comprises driving a single vertical pin into the supporting layer of sand or other particulate material, the pin having a hook shaped element at the top for receiving the rebar and a transverse rod for resting against the upper surface of the supporting layer. These pins have a number of disadvantages in that they are difficult and time consuming to install and in that they are in many cases relatively unstable.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,245,191 (Ernst) discloses a support element for use in the pouring of floors of a concrete building. The support member is formed from wire defined by two separate elements having a horizontal cross bar and two depending legs together with longitudinal wires which connect the elements. Two of the wires sit on top of the cross bars and two of the wires are arranged adjacent to but spaced from the end of the legs. The two lower cross bars are arranged to sit over rebar lying across shuttering at the bottom of the floor to be poured. The two upper cross bars are arranged to support the rebar at the upper part of the floor to be poured. This device is designed specifically for use in pouring of flooring over a rigid shuttering formed by for example wooden panels and has not been considered for and is not suitable for use in pouring concrete layers on a particulate support layer such as sand. While this device therefore has some structural simularity the construction of the present invention, it is designed for an entirely different purpose and the various structural parts have an entirely different intention.